Tests
and comparisons with pictures of over
100
different products to determine which work the best

(Click
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to browse 70 other topics ranging from exotic kaleidoscope designs to
the strange world of lucid dreaming.)

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List: Please use the
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These articles are listed with the most recent at the top. Products
articled at the bottom of the list may no longer be available.)

Of the eight
gold leafing pens tested in the video above, the best was the
Decocolor Gold pen with the Decocolor Gold Leaf and Krylon 18 kt Gold
Leafing pens close seconds.

NEW!!!
Atari
vs Sega Retro Consoles

I tested all
105 games on the Atari console ($39.99) and found that 2 completely
failed to work, 7 more were impossible to play, 43 played but with
problems and 33 played but had such poor graphics and the games were
so boring that they were a complete waste of time. Seven more were
okay to play once in a while leaving 10 that were thoroughly enjoyable.

All of the
games on the Sega Genesis console ($39.99) played, but 27 were
violent fight games some parents may not want their children to play
and most of the the rest weren't very entertaining. In the end I only
found three games worth repeat plays.

So, my
preference is for the Atari console. Not only did it have more games
worth playing, they encompassed a wider range of game types and
weren't as violent.

NEW!!!
Ultra
High Float Helium Balloon Treatment

Squirt a
little Ultra High Float ($13.00 for 14 ounces) into a balloon, fill
it with helium and instead of it floating for only 11 hours you can
count on it lasting a full 7 days. This stuff is great!

NEW!!!
LED
Flame Effect Bulb Comparison

I compared the
Abedoe, Lightone, Junolux, LEDTek, Texsens and LIFU brands of LED
flame effect bulbs and the most realistic bulb was the LEDTek with
the Texsens and close second.

NEW!!!
UNCLE
MILTON'S FORCE TRAINER II

There are two
problems with this Star Wars toy: the images aren't holograms as
promised by the advertising and the training orb isn't controlled by
your brain's beta wave activity. The video above presents two tests
that verify this. The orb's motion is controlled by a random function
in the software so each training session follows a different pattern,
but no matter what you do the training session will complete itself
without any help from the player. The randomness is convincing enough
to fool children but it's only an illusion.

Glow
Stick Test!

After
comparing SnapLight to LumiStick glow sticks, I found that while the
SnapLights last 10% longer and are very slightly brighter, since they
cost over twice as much as the Lumisticks they aren't worth the
exptra expense.

Color
Changing LED Votive Candle Comparison!

InstaPark
color changing LED votive candles lasted twice as long as APG votives
and only cost a few dollars more. But, the APG's taller body shows
off the light better and still last a good six hours so unless you
need a votive that lasts over 8 hours I recommend the APGs.

Costing
$26.76 in October of 2016, I found that only four of the 15 samples
glowed with enough brightness to be interesting. A few others
fluoresced with shades of white that made them look like drab old
rocks. The rest glowed so dimly they were hard to see. I can not
recommend this fluorescent rock sample kit.

The
following is a more detailed Youtube review:

Intext
LED Pool Lights

This
light is designed for soft sided above ground pools. No holes are
needed because the light that's inside the pool is held in place to
the outside power unit with magnets. Coils in both units allow power
to be transferred safely through the pool wall without wires having
to go through it or up and over the pool's rim. One of these lights
is sufficient for a 12 to 15-foot pool, but around 18 feet in
diameter, you might want to use two. My 26 foot pool has two and
while it looks pretty good, one or two more would provide much more
uniform illumination. Please click on the following link to see the
lights in action:

Magic
Track glowing track toy

While
the flexible track is interesting and the flashing lights on the car
of this toy are entertaining to very young children, I have to report
that the track does not glow brightly enough to be seen even in the
best of conditions. The following video demonstrates this:

Fiskars
Duck Scissors Test

Cutting
duck tape with scissors is an exercise in frustration because the
blades quickly clog with adhesive. Fiskars has come to the resue with
scissors specifically designed with non-stick blades that prevent
clogs. I'm happy to report that they work better than expected.
Regular scirrors started clogging after just two cuts. The Fiskars
Duck Edition scissors made dozens of cuts without clogging even once.
If you work with duck tape, these scissors will be a useful tool to has.

Eleven
Frisbees tested to see which is best for the backyard

Of the eleven
Frisbees tested, the ones that flew the straightest, longest and were
the easiest to throw were the 10 and 12 inch Aerobee Superdisks.

Three
Water Balloon Kits Compared!

Bunch-O-Balloons
produced the greatest number of water ballons with the fewest leaks
and was also the cheapest. To view the live action testing of these
three water balloon kits, please click on the following video:

Dusting
Sprays Review

Of the six six
dusting polishes compared, Pledge Lemon Clean repelled the most dust
the longest. The video above provides live action validation for this result.

Kitchen
Bag Fragrance Comparison

Eight kitchen
bags were compared to see which had the strongest and best fragrance.
The winner was Glad's Hawaiian Aloha

Bug-A-Salt
Fly-killing Shotgun

The
Bug-A_Salt gun is a pump action shotgun that uses regular table salt
to blast flies into oblivion. As silly as that may sound, the gun is
a sturdy tool that kills flies and gives the user a lot of fun doing
it. The $70 to $100 price take may seem like a lot, but the high
quality of construction lets you know that it isn't over priced.

Majik
Slide Electronic Bowling Game

Our
six grandchildren, ages 6 to 13, all enjoyed this arcade game with a
sliding puck for a ball and red pin lights for pins. In early 2015 it
was only $29.99 in Walmart. However, I've seen it priced for as high
as $149.95 so it pays to shop around. The two main problems is that
the LCD indicator is too small and dim under most lighting conditions
to read the scores clearly and the Vinyl lane was too uneven for any
sort of control. The second was solved by gluing it to a sheet of
plywood. Also. shimming up the pin end helps the puck to slide all
the way back to the player. For $30 I'd rate this as a good
investment. (Follow-up comment: After four times playing with it, the
grandchildren pretty much got bored with it.)

RoboFish!!!

Battery
powered robotic aquarium fish were a big hit early in 2015. The
following two videos show what the best of the three available looks like.

Louisville
Slugger Pitching Machine

This
spring-loaded pitching machine very consistently throws 40-45 MPH
baseballs into the strike zone of little league-sized players. It's
easy to assemble and ruggedly made, but it's almost worthless for
throwing grounders and while it can throw high drives, can't do high
pop fly balls. For the entire review please watch the following video:

16
Chrome Spray Paints Tested!

The paint that
produced the brightest, mirror-like chrome finish was Spaz Stix
Mirror Chrome. VHT Plate Finish and Alclad II Chrome Lacquer tied for
second. All three of these paints benefited from buffing with a
microfiber cloth after they were completely dry.

THE
WORST WRAPPING PAPER EVER!!!

In
November of 2013 I purchased six rolls of "Holiday Time Glitter
Gift Wrap" from Walmart, item number WM68269. This wrapping
paper is absolutely the worst I've ever handled in 50 years of
wrapping presents. The base material has an odd feel to it that's
somewhere in between paper and plastic. It reminds me of Tyvek. What
makes this wrapping paper so bad is that none of the half-dozen types
of tapes I tried on it would stick to either the glitter side or the
back side. Closer inspection of the label disclosed the paper can
only be sealed on the back side using special double-faced foam
mounting tape. A dozen or so small pieces are included inside the
cardboard tube on which the paper was rolled, but these weren't
nearly enough and they were extremely awkward to use. It can't be
placed near any edges, which left loose seams. It was impossible to
close the ends of the wrapping because there is no way to do so
without trying to get the tape to stick to the glitter side, which it
won't do. But, the biggest problem is that the fine glitter on the
show side was so poorly adhered to the base material that it fell off
by the thousands with the slightest rubbing. These fine, sharp
particles tended to stick to fingers where there are easily
transferred into eyes when rubbed. This could lead to serious injury
to children and adults alike.

Kyocera
Ceramic Kitchen Knives

The
attraction of ceramic kitchen knives is that because the ceramic is
much harder than metal it holds a sharper edge ten times longer than
even the best steel kitchen knives. I found this claim to be true for
the most part, but other issues reduce the cutting power of these knives.

My
Kyocera ceramic blade felt as if it was only slightly sharper than a
freshly honed Hinkles. I can't testify to it's holding its edge ten
times as long because after owning and using it side by side with the
Hinkles I can only say that it's outlasted the steel blade by at
least a factor of two. In other words I've only had to rehone the
metal blade once to keep up with the ceramic blade's sharpness. But
it turns out sharpness isn't everything.

The
ceramic knife weighs almost nothing compared to the metal blade.
This means that you have to push down on it much harder to achieve
the same cutting action. It turns out the weight of a steel blade
provides significant help in driving its edge through food. The
ceramic's lighter weight and having to push down on it throws the
balance of the blade off. I may be prejudiced, but I prefer the feel
of steel.

Another
issue is blade drag as it cuts through foods, particularly meats.
The steel blade slides through with silky smoothness. The ceramic
blade has a very fine gritty feel. The blade looks as polished as the
metal blade but the difference is noticeable. It doesn't have any
more drag, it just feels a little rougher.

Because
the ceramic blade is so much harder it has the potential to be
sharpened much finer than a metal blade. But, being ceramic (spell
that glass) it's also very brittle. Over sharpening would
result in a super thin cutting edge that would chip very easily. This
is also why the blade doesn't have a sharp point, a feature I find
particularly wanting. Having to grab a second blade with a tip to
punch through the plastic wrapping on a piece of steak is a hassle.
This brittleness raised a red flag to me. The intructions that came
with the knike stated that it was normal for tiny, almost
microscopic, pieces of the edge will break off but that the knife
will continue to cut very well. My question is: Where are those tiny
pieces of rasor sharp ceramic blade going? The answer is that some of
them will unavoidably end up in the food. I don't know if the human
body can deal with something like this, but for myself for the time
being I prefer to avoid the possibility.

My
final judgement is that a ceramic blade is fun to have as a
conversation piece and to play with, but for myself I greatly prefer
cold steel. It certainly isn't worth the $80 price tag for a blade
that's only 6-inches long with no tip and the safety issue of eating
bits of ceramic makes me feel uncomfortable.

UPDATE!!!
After a year's use I noticed the
blade getting dull. I could not find a local knife sharpener who
could fix the problem so I purchased a special electric sharpener
made specifically for it by Kyocera. The results were not favorable.
No matter how I tried I could not get the blade back to its original sharpness.

Ceramic
Brake Pads

For
decades I've put up with the black soot given off by standard break
pads. This stuff quickly makes hub caps filthy and is messy to wash
off. So, when I heard about ceramic break pads I thought they might
give off less soot and would be worth a try. I needed to have the
existing pads changed anyway so the extra $200 was worth the gamble.

It
was.

Immediately
after they were installed I thoroughly washed all the soot off the
hubcaps. Normally they would have a obvious coating of new soot in a
few days and a thick layer after two weeks. Three months after the
installation of the ceramic pads the hubcaps are as clean of soot as
the day they were washed. Any dirt on them is only from the road.

I
can't comment of how well ceramic pads work as far as stopping the
car except to say that they seem to do the job as well as the old
pads. I also can't comment on how they affect rotor wear. But I can
state that they produce absolutely none of the soot that used to
plague my hubcaps. For that reason alone they're worth the extra expense.

Krylon
Mirror Like Spray Paint

I
followed the instructions carefully but the resulting mirror-like
effect wasn't as good as I got using a plain silver paint that cost
1/4 as much. This doesn't produce a reflection even close to a real mirror.

DEBBIE
MEYER GREEN BAG TESTED!!!

These
plastic bags are impregnated with a substance that absorbs the
ethylene gas given off by fruit as it ripens and in so doing is
supposed to slow the ripening process. To test this I selected two
bananas that were the same size and at the same stage of ripeness.

The
banana on the left was placed in a Debbie Meyer green bag and the
other wasn't. They were both kept in the same location for ten days
then compared.

The
banana stored in Debbie Meyer's Green Bag on the left appeared to
have ripenedmuch
less than the one on the right that was simply exposed to the air.
If the bananaon
the right appears smaller, it's because evaporation caused the skin
to shrivel andbecome
thinner. I suspect the flesh inside lost moister as well, making it
smaller too.

It
appeared that the bag worked as advertised. But, upon peeling the
banana I discovered that the increased humidity inside the bag had
rendered the skin so soft it almost fell to pieces when peeling the
banana. Worse still, although the bagged banana looked much fresher,
in fact when eaten the banana inside had ripened just as much as the
one exposed to the air. My conclusion: Debbie Meyer Green Bags
preserve the appearance of fruit, but at least in the case of
bananas don't slow the ripening process.

Laser
Pointers!

Red
laser pointers have dominated presentation venues for years. Then
around 2007 green laser pointers became available at increasingly low prices.

Green
pointers' brighter spots and novel color are making them the rage.

Because
they come in high-power versions there's a slight one-upsmanship
competition going on between presenters to determine who can impress
audiences more. The question this article addresses is: What power
level is optimum? Too little and in brightly lit presentation halls
the spot may be lost or appear weak, reflecting poorly on the
presenter. To much power and the area immediately surrounding the
spot can be washed out. To examine these issues I purchased 5mw, 20
mw and 50 mw pointers and compared them.

Prices
vary enormously for any particular power level. Five miliwatt
pointers, the most common, can be found for as little as $7 or as
much as $99. Making things even more confusing price-wise is that
they fluctuate significantly with time. Two weeks after I purchased
the 50 mw pointer from Amazon its price dropped from $55 to $42. Over
the same period the 20 mw unit increased from $23 to $27.

Left
to right: 5mw, 20mw and 50mw spots

The
spot sizes above are from beams projecting on a screen 40 feet away.
While the 50 mw spot is the largest, to audiences all of the pointers
produce spots that are so small as to appear as points. However, the
brilliance of the spots varies much more than the photograph above
portrays. The 50 mw pointer is so bright that it's almost painful to
look at.

I
found that the 5 mw pointer is bright enough for almost any
presentation venue. The only time it will be challenged is outside
with direct sunlight shining on the presentation surface. The 20 mw
unit provides more "pop" and shows up well under even those
conditions. The 50 mw unit is too bright for indoor use. The spot
overpowers the area immediately around it and in small rooms will
leave viewers wincing from its brilliance. Worse still, the beam is
bright enough to be seen traveling through the air. This light-saber
effect may be entertaining and useful at star parties for pointing
out objects in the night sky, but in a presentation room it can be distracting.

One
final issue with high power pointers is reliability. I was fortunate
to exchange several emails and a telephone call with Mr. David
Rifkin, President and CEO of MPO, a major laser pointer source. He
explained that many of the cheap, high power pointers on the market
are actually lower power units being overdriven to produce brighter
beams. The downside of this is that the laser lifetime is reduced
from thousands of hours to perhaps as few as hundreds. Additionally,
many such units exhibit erratic power fluctuations and sudden breakdowns.

My
experiences with the 20 and 50 mw pointers confirms Mr. Rifkin's
comments. The 20 mw pointer exhibits a half-second delay in its
brightness. It comes on initially at 5 mw then snaps on to full
power. The 50 mw pointer needs to be thoroughly warmed up before it
puts out full power. This can take up to four minutes from room temperature.

Erratic
behavior isn't limited to high-power pointers. I purchased a second
5 mw unit and discovered that it started off very bright, then within
seconds began flickering and dimming until after four minutes it was
barely half as bright as the Radio Shack pointer.

My
recommendation is to stick with 5 mw pointers purchased from a store
where you can test it before purchasing. Hold it on for several
minutes to make sure the beam output remains constant. Store-bought
pointers will be more expensive than bargains on the Internet but in
exchange you know you are getting something that works.

PRODUCT
WARNING!!!

Gardener
and Bloom brand potting soil

In
Spring of 2007 I purchased four bags of Gardener and Bloome's Rose
Potting soil and used it to plant 77 pots with zinnia, tomato, melon,
Canterbury bell and salvia seeds. The results were a complete
disaster. Although I followed my regular routine for growing
seedlings, a routine that's worked flawlessly for over 20 years, the
plants that came up grew poorly, exhibited many disease symptoms and
30-percent died. Upon testing the soil I discovered that in spite of
the package advertisements stating that the soil contained a wide
spectrum of organic amendments such as bat guano, worm castings, kelp
meal, alfalfa meal and so forth, the soil was completely lacking in
nitrogen, potassium and phosphorous. Even after adding extra
fertilizer the plants grew poorly. I've used many potting mixes over
the years and this is clearly the worst. Perhaps I got a bad few bags
out of what may otherwise have been a a good production run, but for
myself I will never use this product again.

Infra-red
thermometer!

I
found this infra-red thermometer by Mastercool to be a very useful
and easy-to-use kitchen tool. To use it you point it at any surface
and press the trigger. It measures the infra-red heat coming off the
object in question and instantly converts this into a temperature
reading. It works equally well regardless of the object's
temperature: from dry ice to sizzling hot pans.

I
found it particularly useful in determining the optimum temperature
to start cooking eggs (325-degrees F) and many other pan-cooked
foods. It's also useful in determining when certain foods are cooked.
For example, I found I like the yokes of my fried eggs cooked until
they read 145-degrees F.

The
instruments are available in most cooking stores and can even be
found in Pep Boys auto parts stores near the cash register. They cost
between $20 and $60.

King
Arthur White
Whole Wheat Flour

The
people at King Arthur flour found a variety of wheat that has a
white, or at least much lighter than normal, bran layer. When milled
as whole wheat flour what you get is a whole grain product that
doesn't look speckled like regular whole wheat flour.

The
color is a rich golden amber. Looking very close shows the bran
flakes as a slightly darker gold. In baking, the resulting products
have a pleasant buttery flavor and seem smoother than normal whole
wheat flour. I like it, though I have to wonder if the nutrient level
of the lighter bran is as high as in normal wheat.

The
Crayola Electric Cutter!

The
electric Crayola Paper Cutter is a pen-shaped device that uses a
tiny pulsating blade in its tip to cut through paper. It runs on two
C batteries. The blade moves in and out so fast it's hard to see. In
principle it works like a tattoo pen. When it's moved from left to
right across paper it makes a very clean cut. Moving up or down it
creates a series of very closely spaced perforations, which pull
apart easily but leave a slightly rough edge. The key to using this
cutter is to move slowly so that the perforations on vertical or
slanted lines are close enough to come apart easily and provide a
smooth edge.

The
pen has to be used on a soft underlaying surface, like the special
cutting board provided, that supports the paper yet has enough give
to allow the cutter to penetrate it.

The
cutter works well on all types of paper and even cardstock. The
advantage this cutter has over scissors and even Exacto knives is
that it can quickly and easily cut tiny, complicated shapes, such as
the following dinosaur:

Besides
the cutter and cutting surface, it comes with an extra cutting tip,
many sheets of art paper, plastic stencils, and a wide variety of
craft projects. For $17 I found it interesting and a lot of fun.

Caution,
although the sharp tip retracts when not in use and only protrudes
1/8th-inch when turned on, it can still puncture skin when
in use so children should use it only with adult supervision.

Stringin'
It toy

The
Stringin' It toy has two motors at the end of a pair of arms that
spin a length of string in loops of various shapes. A set of colored
flashing LEDs illuminate the string and through a stroboscopic effect
freeze the motion of the sting in a variety of interesting patterns.
By controlling the speed of the motors and/or the speed of the
flashing lights the motion of the string can be brought to a complete
stand still or allowed to drift slowly in circles. Additional
controls allow the user to vary the length of the light flashes so
that only part of the loop is illuminated:

or
all of it is.

If
you enjoy using kaleidoscopes then this toy should appeal to you. It
should also be interesting to mechanical engineers because it takes
them back to their college days when they studied stop-motion
mechanical analysis using stroboscopes. This would be a useful toy
for parents to use as a science experiment with their children.

I
found this in Wal-mart in April of 2006. It's marketed by the
"Can You Imagine" company, www.cyi.net.

Anti-Barking
Device

My
neighbors have a dog they let bark all day long. Desperate for a
little piece and quiet I researched the Internet for anti-barking
training devices that use silent ultrasound to encourage dogs to bark
less. Of the half-dozen models I found, the one with the greatest
range and power was the Dog Silencer Pro for $89.95 ($106.99 after
shipping and handling.) It was supposed to have a more sensitive
detector than any other unit that could automatically trigger the
device when the barking dog was as much as 75-feet away. Most other
detectors only claimed 25 to 35-feet.

I
purchased a Dog Silencer Pro and after testing it on the neighbor's
dog immediately returned it for a refund. Contrary to its claims, the
unit I got would fire less than once out of every ten barks even when
the dog was directly facing the detector and only 15 feet away. At
25-feet it didn't fire a single time, even with a brand new battery
and nothing between the dog and the device.

I'm
not saying that the Dog Silencer Pro doesn't work, only that the
unit I got did not have anything close to the sensitivity claimed.

Further
research suggests that all of these devices may be of questionable
effectiveness. They are all rated at 120-130 decibels (a measure of
loudness about equal to a fire engine racing by without its
siren on.) But, that's measured 1-foot from the ultrasonic
transducer. As the sound travels outward in a hemispherical wavefront
it spreads itself out reducing its loudness and also loses power
because of atmospheric attenuation. Using equations obtained from and
verified by several different webpages I was able to estimate that
the total attenuation over a distance of 50-feet would be 40
decibels, reducing the signal heard by the dog in the middle of an
average yard, assuming you mounted the device on your property line
as close as possible to your neighbor's fence, to 80 decibels. I
doubt this is loud enough to influence a barking dog because the
loudness of his bark is several times greater. It's like trying to
get someone screaming in your face to stop screaming by whispering at
him. He's making so much noise he's probably not even going to hear you.

Bug
Vacuum

I
purchased this toy gun from a Toys-R-Us store and found that as long
as the batteries were fresh and the end could be brought to within
1/2-inch of the bug to be collected it worked quite well. I used it
to snatch spiders off walls, ants off concrete and many flies. The
pivoting magnifying lens traps the bugs and the design of the gun
allows them to be released unharmed. I found it particularly useful
for catching flies to feed to my Venus
Flytrap Plants.

Four
Gold leafing systems compared!

I
tried four gold leaving systems to see to see which produced the
most realistic metallic shine: Krylon's 18 kt Gold Leafing Pen, Mona
Lisa Products Gold Leaf, Anita's Foil Leafing, and Plaid Liquid Leaf.
The picture below shows the results with the picture taken at the
angle at which all four test squares reflected the most amount of
light and looked at their best:

First
on the left is the Krylon pen. It was the easiest to use and
produced a graining-looking gold finish that reflected light more
metallically that suggested by the image, but still far short of what
most people think of as metallic gold. Using many coats and trying it
on both porous and nonporous surfaces produced similar results.

Next
on the left was Plaid's Liquid Leaf. It exhibited a noticeable
reddish tint but in all other ways was similar to the Krylon pen.

Second
from the right was Anita's Gold Leafing. With this system you paint
a thin layer of adhesive (called sizing in the gold leaf lexicon),
let it dry until tacky and then apply a plastic sheet with a thin
film of simulated gold on it underside, rub it on, then pull the
plastic away. The simulated gold remains stuck to the sizing. This
product was the only one of the four that produced a shiny, smooth,
metallic finish that looked like polished gold. The problem with this
system is that the plastic used as the backing for the gold isn't
stretchy so getting the gold into tight corners or onto textured
surfaces will be difficult or impossible.

On
the far right is Mona Lisa Gold Leaf. It works similar to Anita's
system except the simulated gold leaf isn't mounted on the back of a
sheet of plastic. The metal leaf is all by itself and somewhat tricky
to use. While it produced a very solid layer of gold-like color; its
shine, while better than the two paint-on produces, fell far short of
the polished sheen of Anita's Foil Leafing. Like the two paint-on
products, the Mona Lisa product had a slight graininess to its shine
that made it look like gold that had been rubbed with fine steel
wool: shiny but not polished.

Both
foil products showed any brush marks in the sizing so using an
application technique that creates a streak-free coating should be used.

All
of these products are simulated gold and may oxidize over time and
need to be overcoated for long-term protection.

I
hope to repeat this test using real gold leaf once I find a source
that sells small quantities of it.

Sony
CD-RW disc test!

One
day I needed some CDs to make music disks. The only ones available
were Sony CD-RWs for $5 a 5-pack box. Two out of 8 disks ended up
recording songs with audible "blips" in the soundtrack. The
remaining 6 were clean. It seems to me that a 25-percent failure rate
is too high for reliable storage so I doubt I will ever use this
product again.

Colored-flame
birthday candles!

Walmart
sells a set of 5 colored candles for $2.68 that produce flames that
match the color of the candle's bodies. I tried them and found that
they do indeed work as advertised, though the colors aren't as bright
or pure as indicated on the box. Blue, red and orange are good,
purple and green are weak. (Note: be sure to unscrew the plastic caps
and light the cotton wicks under them rather than the long pointed
sticks at the other end that just look like wicks. They are for
pushing into the cake.)

6
anti-itch medications tested!

When I had an
allergic reaction that created a rash over my arms and legs, I
realized that it was a unique opportunity to compare anti-itch
medications. what I found was that 1-percent hydrocortisone cream,
20-percent benzocaine creams, corn starch with zinc oxide powders,
and zanfel (specifically designed for poison oak, sumac, and ivy) did
little to relieve the itching. Two-percent diphenhydramine
Hydrochloride with 0.1-percent zinc acetate and Gold Bond cream
(1-percent menthol with 1-percent Pramoxine hydrochloride) worked
much better.

It's important
to note that each person and rash is unique and a medication that
works for one person with a particular type of rash may not work for
another. Also: I am not of doctor and am in
no way associated with the medical profession. Nothing I say should
be taken as medical advice.

The
new TV Guide!

I
sympathize with the writers and editors of TV Guide. The huge
number of channels and the frequency with which cable companies
change channels and stations change shows make creating a usable
guide a nightmare. Still, the TV Guide people have been doing
this for half a century so I expected them to do a better job when
they revamped the magazine's format in Fall of 2005.

While
the larger size and new format for the daily listings are an
improvement over the older version, they failed as far as
completeness is concerned. First, the new TV Guide provides
absolutely no programming information from 2:00 AM to 12:00 PM Monday
through Friday. Second, grouping the daytime (12:00 PM to 7:30 PM)
schedule altogether in one index means that there is no specific
information about what is on a particular show. For example, if a
certain time slot has a different movie every day, TV Guide
only says "movie" without saying which movie is playing on
each day of the week. Third, the late night schedule is truncated to
1/4 of the channels carried in the rest of the guide. Fourth, late
night movies on only 6 of the major movie channels are clumped
together on the last page. It would have been better for the list to
be more complete and integrated with the rest of the schedule.
Finally, there wasn't any program information at all for daytime on
Saturday and Sunday, at least not in the first two issues I purchased
and I looked for it three times in each.

In
total I estimate that the new TV Guide magazine provides program
information for only 60 percent of the week, and much of that is so
minimal in scope as to be almost worthless. What the writers have
increased is the number of articles about shows and TV personalities.
It seems to me it would be more accurate to call it TV Magazine
rather than TV Guide.

What
I would have preferred, and what would be a true guide to TV
programming, would have been a program guide of the same detail and
in the same format as provided for prime time but done for each day
from 12:00 AM one morning to 12:00 AM of the next. That could be done
without changing the magazine's page count by reducing the number of articles.

eMachines
Computer

Computers
come and go so quickly there seems to be little point in writing
critiques on one particular model, but in the chance someone's
planning to purchase an eMachine model T2984
there are a few things they should know about it.

I've
been using one for five months now and have to state that it is the
most unstable system I have ever used. I always fire the monster up
in the same way yet one out of every ten times I try to get on the
Internet it locks up and I have to wait five minutes before it'll
display the log-on box. About just as often, when I turn it on the
desktop will change from full screen to reduced size for no
particular reason. Once out of every 20 times when I double click on
the Internet icon instead of sending me to the log-on box, it
displays a small note saying that the page I requested is not
available off-line and asks me if I want to get on-line to view it.
There are several other glitches that appear from time to time like
WORD not starting the same way or the computer not even starting up
Windows, rather all I get is a flashing cursor.

Another
annoyance is that all the software that came with the computer is
strictly class-B. For example, the Outlook Express provided doesn't
even have a spell checker. Also, although I've repeatedly told the
computer I want it to remember my Outlook Express password, it
refuses to do so.

I've
worked with a dozen computers over the last 20 years and this is by
far the worst. But... it's also the cheapest, relatively speaking.
After all the rebates came, in the computer, monitor and printer only
cost me $350.00 in 2005.

VHS
tape to DVD conversion

When
my brother-in-law purchased a DVD/VHS player-recorder, I decided to
test the image quality of a DVD made from a VHS tape. The original
tape was in excellent condition: recorded at standard speed and very
clear. The resulting DVD copied from it was grainy and not very good
to watch. It provided an image that was about what you'd get from
making a SLP (super long play) VHS tape by copying a standard speed
VHS tape. Although the DVD has the advantage of being less prone to
degradation over time, the resulting picture quality is so poor that
I doubt it's worth watching.

Norton
2004 versus Norton 2005 antiviral software!

In September
of 2005 my computer got nailed with a harmless but annoying
infection. Somehow something got into the system and took over my
homepage as well as loading the system down with spyware, or at least
something that generated countless spyware warning popups. Every time
I logged onto the Internet I was sent to an advertising page with the
URL About:Blank. Nothing I could do would get rid of it. Because the
computer couldn't support some new software I wanted to install, I
decided to get a new one.

The new
computer came with an Microsoft firewall and Norton 2004 antivirus.
After making sure that both were enabled and after updating Norton
2004 with all the latest updates I revisited the sites of which one
was suspected of being the source of the "capture homepage"
problem. In spite of the MS firewall and Norton software, the same
bug stole my homepage and installed the spyware popups.

I reformatted
the hard drive and, after turning off the MS firewall and unistalling
Norton 2004, installed Norton 2005 Internet Security system. After
downloading all the latest updates I again visited the suspected
sites. This time nothing happened.

I assume from
this that Norton 2005 Internet Security is superior to Norton 2004
antivirus. This may seem like a no-brainer, but without tests like
this we can't know for certain if a new product really is better than
an older version.

Florescent
vs incandescent lighting

I
recently switched from incandescent to florescent bulbs over my pool
table. The incandescents had been 150 watts each so I used two
150-watt equivalent florescent bulbs. I was surprised that the room
was much darker.

The
photo on the left is with two 150-watt incandescent bulbs. The one
on the right is with two 150-watt equivalent (32-watt actual)
florescent bulbs. All camera setting and processing steps were
identical in both photos. (The apparent change in color in the
florescent photo is the result of the picture being underexposed.)
It's obvious that in spite of claims on the packaging, the 32-watt
fluorescent do not produce as much light as 150-watt incandescents.
The photos accurately show the difference in lighting when viewed in
person. The difference isn't a photographic artifact.

The
curious thing about this comparison is that both bulbs are rated at
2100 lumens. I can think of two factors that might reduce the useful
light output of the florescent bulbs. First, they are made with
spiral tubing. Light emitted on the sides of the tubing facing inward
is going to be blocked from reaching the outside where it can
illuminate the room. Although some of this light might be reflected
off tubing on the other side of the bulb and eventually make its way
out, there will be losses from this and the actual output reduced.
Second, the human eye may be more receptive to the light from
incandescent bulbs than it is from florescent, making the
incandescents appear brighter. (This would not explain why the camera
still recorded the florescents as being so much dimmer. Even when I
tried another photo with the camera set on the "florescent
compensation" setting, the picture still came out much dimmer
than the incandescent.)

I'd
estimate that for florescent to match the light output of the
incandescents they would have to be 200 or 225-watt equivalent bulbs:
around 37 to 40 actual watts.

Pinesol's
new "Never mop withdirty
water again" cleaner!

It's
not often that a commercial comes along for something that appears
truly innovative. Consequently, I was surprised to see an add for a
new Pinesol cleaner that was supposed to make the dirt released in a
mop bucket immediately fall to the bottom of the bucket instead of
dissolving in the water and floating around. As the following two
photos from the commercial taken a few seconds apart supposedly
demonstrate, the reaction is immediate:

It
appeared to be too good to be true so I decided to get some and see
if it really worked. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it does.

I
filled two glasses with water and added the recommended amount of
the new Pinesol to one of them. Then I added two teaspoons of dirt
taken from my garden to each glass and stirred them up. The following
four pictures were taken, from left to right, five seconds after
mixing, fifteen seconds after mixing, thirty seconds after mixing and
two minutes after mixing:

The
settling of the dirt in the commercial was faster than my
experiment, but not by much. The reason may simply be that the type
of dirt used in the commercial worked better than the very fine soil
in my back yard. Another nice surprise was that this new cleaner
doesn't cost anymore than the old Pinesol.

How
does it work? I've heard of chemicals that cause particulate matter
in water to clump together so that they fall to the bottom of the
container. The most common version are chemicals added to swimming
pools to make the water sparkling clear. They make microscopic dirt
particles stick together so that the filter can remove them. I
suspect that Pinesol has added some of this chemical to their new cleaner.

NEW!!! NasalCrom

When I got
into my forties, I noticed I began having sinus attacks. These lasted
several days during which time I was constantly sneezing and had so
much sinus pressure that I was all but completely incapacitated.
Since they only happened once a year I didn't worry about them. By
the time I turned fifty they started hitting my two and three times a
year. Two years later they where attacking me every month and
sometimes twice in the same month. Something had to be done.

After some
Internet searching for solutions, the one solution I thought had the
best support and most positive write ups and the least number of side
effects was NasalCrom (cromolyn sodium nasal spray.) This is a spray
you apply to each nostril four times a day. It doesn't cure sinus
attacks, it prevents them from happening. It can take a week to be
effective. I tried it and all my sinus attacks stopped. Three times
I've run out and almost immediately the attacks resumed. When I went
back on it they stopped. I've been using it constantly for the last
year and haven't had a single attack. I have not noticed any side
effects what so ever.

I found that
after two weeks of treating myself four times a day, I could cut back
to a single treatment in the morning and one at night and it
continued to provide complete protection from whatever was giving me
the attacks.

Note:
I am not a doctor or in any way associated with the medical
profession. The article above only
relates to my personal experiences and should not be regarded as a
recommendation to take this or any other medication.

NEW!!!
Four spray furniture polishes compared!

Favor
and Pledge are packaged in identical containers and
made by the same company. The only difference is the labeling. They
both had the highest amount of wax in them that produced a deep,
glossy finish.

Olde English
polish did an acceptable job of putting a shine on tables but only
had half the wax as the first two products.

Kleen Guard
Had no visible wax in it at all. It cleaned the table about as well
as a damp towel and only left a dim shine on the surface. It was the
least acceptable of the four polishes tested.

Try the
Hand Rubbed Polishing Technique for a glassy surface I have
an old cherrywood dining table that has a dull surface. Normal
spraying and wiping, even with the best spray polishes, only
brightens the surface slightly. But, by using the following technique
I can quickly put a shine on it that looks like table's covered in a
sheet of polished glass:

1. Spray a
medium heavy layer of Favor or Pledge over the table. Use your hand
to rub the polish lightly into the surface. What this does is brings
the water carrier to the top and forces the wax down onto the table.
This gets messy because the wax builds up between your fingers. Once
the water is gone this wax will be picked up by the table.

2. Keep
rubbing very lightly and continue until all the water evaporates.
Once this happens you'll begin to see brilliantly glossy areas appear
on the surface. Continue rubbing out any dull spots. After a few
minutes the entire table will have a glossy finish that looks wet to
the touch. (The last rubbing strokes should follow the direction of
the wood grain.) The wax at this point is so thick and soft that of
you lightly drag a finger over it, a streak will form that slowly
fades away as the wax flows under it's own weight.

3. Don't buff
this surface with a cloth. That will only cause the cloth to soak up
the wax, resulting in a duller finish. Instead, when the finish gets
streaked, simply give it another light rubbing with your hand. This
will smooth the wax out and return the gloss.

.......

..............Before.............After
a Hand-Rubbed Polish

These two
pictures don't even come close to showing the dramatic improvement in
the shine a hand-rubbed polish job provides. Hand rubbing produces a
glass that's at least several times as brght and thick. These
pictures were taken of the same section of the table before and after
polishing. The reflection is from an overhead lamp.

NEW!!!Mach
3 versus Sensor Excel razor comparison!

The Mach 3
Turbo razor, left, uses a unique head design that enables the head to
hinge up and down rather that pivot as most razors do like the Sensor
Excel, right. The problem with the Mach 3 is that it swings up and
down so easily that it's difficult to get it to hit the bottom of
hollow areas. It's also harder to get a sharp clear line on sideburns
and you can't get as close to your nose. I usually have to touch up
these areas with an electric razor. None of these shortcomings exist
with the Sensor Excel, which is my preferred choice.

NEW!!!Soap
scum cleaners!

I
got tired scrubbing soap scum off the sides of the bath tub so I
decided to see which soap scum remover worked best.

Brands
Tested:

Test Results:

(This area was
solid white with soap scum before the test. The change in color on
the left was the result of lighting, not tub color or cleaner
effects. In each case the cleaner was squirted in a vertical line
over the scum, left to sit one minute, and rinsed off with water
without scrubbing.)

From left to right:

De-Solv-It:
An all organic cleaner that hardly touched the soap scum.

Tilex:
The best! It cleaned off the most scum and left the tub surface
shiny. A little drained away down the bottom of the tub and even that
area glistened clean.

Scrub Free:
Second best. Worked excellently and left a shine.

Shower Power:
Got the scum off but the surface wasn't left as shiny as with Tilex.

Lysol:
Got the scum off but the surface wasn't left as shiny as with Tilex.

Five
gear-drive sprinklers compared!

All of the
sprinklers tested pop up four inches in use. From left to right:

NAAN Stealth:
(Shown next to its box.) $16.99, comes with five nozzles to tailor
the discharge, good instructions, riser was difficult to open and the
side to side adjustment very awkward.

Water
distribution measured from the sprinkler with a #9 nozzle at 45 psi:

10' = 1"
of water20' = 3/4"30" = 1/2"40' = 3/8"44' = 1/8"

Optima:
$9.99, no additional nozzles provided, almost no instructions and
the little that were provided were vague to the point of being
worthless, very difficult to make adjustments, in operation it gave
off a loud clicking sound that was almost as loud as an impulse
sprinkler, oscillates very fast.

Water
distribution measured from the sprinkler at 45 psi:

10' = 3/4"
of water20' = 3/4"30" = 1/2"40' = 0"44' = 0"

Rainbird:
$11.99, easy to understand instructions, simple to adjustment, gives
off a lot of very fine spray, only comes with one nozzle, dumps a lot
of water in the first eight feet.

(BEST
CHOICE!) Orbit
WaterMaster Voyager II: $11.96 (at Wal-Mart), the best
instructions of the five sprinklers tested, the easiest to adjust,
longest range (52' at 45 psi with a #12 nozzle), comes with 12
optional nozzles and a very user-friendly adjustment tool. Many of
the nozzles produce large drops which are less effected by wind than
any of the other sprinklers but if you want fine mist there are
several nozzles that can provide it.

Water
distribution measured from the sprinkler with a #8 nozzle at 45 psi:

10' = 1
1/4" of water20' = 3/4"30" = 5/8"40' = 1/2"44' = 1/8"

Water
distribution measured from the sprinkler with a #9 nozzle at 45 psi:

10' = 3/4"
of water20' = 5/8"30" = 1/2"40' = 1/2"44' = 3/8"

(This was
almost perfect for the 44' x 58' grassed-in area of my backyard. One
sprinkler at each of the four corners provide a very even water
distribution over the entire area.)

Water
distribution measured from the sprinkler with a #10 nozzle at 45 psi:

10' = 1"
of water20' = 5/8"30" = 3/4"40' = 3/4"44' = 5/8"

Exercise
bikes!

Exercise bikes
come in two basic types: upright (like a real bicycle) and recumbent,
where you sit down in a chair-like seat with your feet thrust
forward. After trying several of both types, it was obvious that the
recumbent type were more comfortable and easier to watch TV from as
you work out.

My wife and I
tested the following five recumbent exercise bikes and recorded the
following results:

Nordic
Track Recumbent Cycle:
($499 at Sears) slight wobble in the foot pedals, average display,
easy to make changes to drag settings, comfort level was okay,
battery powered magnetic drag system was smooth.

WestcoRecumbent Cycle:
($199 at Sears) pedals wobbled a lot making pedaling very
uncomfortable, mechanical drag was difficult to adjust and the
adjustment would change as friction heated the unit up, seat uncomfortable.

VR Recumbent Cycle:
($229 at Sports Chalet) very comfortable seat but the drag
adjustment knob was wedged between the readout and the handlebars
making it extremely difficult to adjust.

Our
Top Pick!Schwinn
SRB 1500:
($349 at Costco) the most comfortable seat, the easiest seat to
adjust, extremely clear display. This is the one we bought.

As
good as the Schwinn is, it's not without its faults. The calorie
meter on our bike consistently reads over five times higher than it
should. An average rider burns 300 calories per hour while pedaling.
This bike tries to tell me that I burn 1800 calories an hour. The
maximum drag is just barely enough to get my heart rate up into the
120-130 aerobic range. While I run a leisurely five miles a day at
five mph, I am far from being in top condition. If you are, this
cycle may not have enough drag for you. Finally, after an hour on the
cycle, I noticed that the rpm, speed and watt indicators became
erratic, sometimes dropping to zero.

In
spite of these issues I'm happy with the unit.

Finally...
a leaky hose that works!

Further down
this page there are three reports on leaky hoses that claim to
distribute water evenly over their entire lengths. I found that all
but one grossly failed to live up to that claim. The one that did, by
Swan, was so inconsistent in flow rates from hose to hose that using
it in a large system was impossible. Finally, I'm happy to report
that I've found a leaky hose that works: the model ST100R drip soaker
by DIG ($7.99 per 100' at H&E stores.) It has 0.85 gph drip
emitters every foot along a 16 mil black tube that's 1/2" in
diameter. I measured the flow rate from the first emitter in the line
and the 100th (100' away) and they both produced exactly the same
amount of water.

Three
tire cleaners compared

ArmourAll
Detailer's Advantage Tire Foam:
Foam comes out a little loose. Some side spray is unavoidable. Gave
the second shiniest finish.

Prestone
3 rainstorm protection tire shine: Hand pump spray is easy
to control. Cheapest of the three per ounce. Provided the least
amount of shine.

Leaky
Hoses

As attractive as these hoses appear, I have found that they
universally, with one exception, do not distribute water uniformly
along there length. The worse offenders are the high-pressure hoses
with two of three channels that feed a series of holes or slits down
their length. The first five feet of a fifty-foot long hose will
spray out four times as much water as the last five feet. The popular
black, porous hose made out of old tires isn't much better. 5/8-inch
diameter hoses leak 2-3 times as much water out of the beginning as
the end. There is one hose that does a very good job. It's a porous
hose called The Ultra Earth Quencher and is made by Swan, that's like
the tire hose but it's more gray in color and the pores are much
finer, so fine that they claim it can be buried and plant roots won't
clog it. When I tested it, the first five feet of a fifty foot length
delivered only 34 percent more water than the last five feet.
Reducing the pressure to a trickle made the delivery rates almost
equal at both ends. The only bad thing about this hose is that it
costs $14.00 for a fifty-foot length and I've only seen it in
Alberton's grocery stores.

NEW!!!
Swan hose update!

Several
years after writing the above article, I decided to use a large
number of Swan hoses to make an underground watering system. Although
these hoses had worked excellently by themselves, I found out that
using many of them in parallel doesn't work. The problem is that
while the porosity is uniform along the length of each hose, from
hose to hose it can vary by as much as a factor of twenty. Some of
the hoses in my system barely got damp on the outside. Others poured
out a flood of water. (Playing with various constrictors in an effort
to balance the system provided the twenty to one ratio.)

NEW!!!
Three
glass cutters compared!

From
left to right: a cheap $2 cutter, a very good $16 cutter, and an $18
cutter that applies an almost microscopic trace of oil to the cutting
wheel. The picture above the cutters shows the cut lines for each of
them. The first two cut almost the same and the breaks were equally
hard to break. The oil filled cutter produced almost no glass shards
and the line broke with half the force required to break the others.
There is so little oil deposited on the glass that I doubt you could
see it if you tried. The oil's water soluble and cleans up easily.
For my money, the oil-filled cutter is the one for me and the one
I'll use for making my kaleidoscopes.

NEW!!!
Two
terrible toys!

These
you-assemble-them battlebot toys by Jakks Pacific are terrible. Many
of the parts are so small that they require a child's tiny hand, yet
the complexity of construction requires an adult. Even with the aid
or needle-nosed pliers and a set of jeweler's screwdrivers, I found
these difficult to assemble... and I like and am good at this sort of
thing. The assembly instructions are minimal and require a lot of
trial and error to get the things together.

Worst
of all, if you look over the box and instructions, it doesn't tell
you anywhere what these toys do. Once I got them together I found it
it wasn't much. The blade-bot simply raises and lowers its blade, the
wheels aren't motorized. The Ronin bot only spins a disc and it's
treads are so tight that it's almost impossible to get them to turn.

These
are the sort of rip-off toys that look interesting and
instructional, but don't really do enough to justify the time to
assemble (two-hours for Ronin) and are so difficult most children
will give up and throw them away.

Dot
drip emitters

I
purchased a dozen Dot brand 1/2-gallon per hour automatically
pressure regulated drip emitters and tested them on a 5/8-inch
diameter hose. The package stated that they provided the same amount
of flow regardless of pressure (limited to 60 psi.)

I
found that the emitters varied their output by a factor of three as
the pressure changed from 10 psi to 40 psi. Additionally, the output
rate varied from emitter to emitter: some barely dripped, others had
water streaming from them.

I'd
rate these as poor self-regulating emitters

Baby
toys

I'm using my 5-month old grandson (Joshua), with his parent's
permission of course, to test all sorts of things. In this case which
toy creates the brightest reaction. The first one on the left bounces
around and giggles when turned on. He eyed it warily and didn't
smile. I interpret this as a "no" vote. The lady bug crawls
and opens its wings, the pig walks and oinks, and the hippy walks and
opens its mouth making a growling sound. They all got smiles, were
grabbed, and quickly thrust into his mouth had we let him. BUT, when
he saw the dog do its backflip he broke out in delighted laughter.
So, electric, back-flipping dogs are the baby-toy winner as far as
making him laugh is concerned.

But, The toy that got the most interesting reaction was when I
showed him the nebula ball discussed below. His eyes popped open wide
and his face took on a look of intense curiosity that nothing else
has come close to inspire. He placed his hands on the sphere and for
the first time did not attempt to put it in his mouth. His attention
was focused on studying it. It was amazing to witness.

Best
Light Effect Show!

The last five years have seen many innovations in specialty lights
for entertainment. In mu opinion the best is the original Nebular
Sphere (sold under many names). The graceful dance of the electric
tendrils is mesmerizing. Although more complex shapes have been
developed and some writhe faster, this classic is the best. It's also
cheap. When these devices first came out they cost $1500.00 a copy.
Now you can get one for $40 and Wal-Mart.

Diapers

Further down this page is an article comparing several different
brands of diapers. The winner was Pampers. However, in Newborn, size
1 and size 2, Pampers comes in two types: Swaddlers and Premiums.
Testing both on my grandson, the Swaddlers had a higher back and were
less likely to leak. The premiums tended to give him a rash.

Kleenexs
for cleaning glasses!

Repeated testing has proven to me that contrary to what most
eyeglass providers recommend, Kleenex tissues cause fewer scratches
than cloth towels. But, by Kleenex I mean that specific brand. All
other;s that I'd tried cause scratches.

In case you were wondering why cloth isn't as good as Kleenex, it's
that while perfectly clean cloth is the best, perfectly clean
cloth is almost impossible to get. Cloth can pick of microscopic sand
particles in the washer that remain imbedded in its fibers. Even if
you could get them all out, the next time you lay the cloth out to
fold it after washing, it could pick up new dust and grit from the
table. Over the long haul, I've consistently gotten the fewest
scratches using Kleenex (Note: this assumes the glasses have been
thoroughly flushed with water first to make sure they are clean of grit.)

White
sugars!

White
sugar is about as common a thing as you can imagine and one would
assume, therefore, that they are all much the same. While this is
true as far as taste is concerned, I found one brand that was
markedly different as regards texture.

C&H,
Spreckles, several store-brands, and Holly white sugars were
compared and the only difference was that Holly, unlike the others,
was extremely large grained. Its grains were so large that it didn't
mix well with dry ingredients and was noticeably slower to dissolve
in liquids. Here's a picture so you can see for yourself, C&H is
on the left and Holly is on the right:

Microwave
egg poacher tested!

I tested a
Nordic Ware microwave egg poacher and was very disappointed. The
whites came out tough and the yokes cooked dry in spite of carefully
following the instructions. The problem is that egg yokes cook faster
than whites so it's impossible to keep them soft while using a
cooking technique, microwaving, that cooks the entire volume of
what's being cooked at once. I was able to beat this by making two
changes: first I separated the egg and cooked the white by itself for
half the time, then added the yoke and finished cooking; second I
reduced the power and increased the time from max-and-30-seconds to
20-percent-and-4-minutes. Still, the whites weren't right. The simple
fact is that the special texture of poached eggs can only be achieved
by cooking them in water. At best, microwaving can only achieve
something closer to fried eggs.

The
best radio contolled toy I've ever used!

Over
the years, I've tried just about every type of radio controlled toy
imaginable and even built a few of my own. But the one that is the
best and most fun is the four-foot long indoor flying blimp pictured
above. It's marketed by Mobile Airships, 20 Ryan Place, Brantford,
Ontario, Canada, N3S, 7S1 (http://www.blimpguys.com).
I ordered one over the phone and it arrived within ten days.
Assembly was quick and easy: about ten minutes and that included the
time to inflate the balloon using a helium tank purchased from
Wal-Mart. I purchased the smallest, cheapest version ($59.99) from a
wide selection of sizes, colors and shapes.

The
blimp has three motors that enable the user to make it fly up, down,
turn left or right, and move forward or backward. It hovers and best
of all, can be made to drift dead slow. Most RC toys move so fast
that the user can't really savor the charm of their motion. That's
not the case with these blimps. The only hitch is that they have to
be used inside where there aren't any air currents to knock the blimp
around. Oh yes, two blimps can be ordered with different RC
frequencies so that they can be used at the same time. I strongly
endorse these blimps as one of the most fun toys you can get your
children... or yourself.

For
those of you with very large living rooms, I believe Mobile Airships
sells large versions up to 300 feet long.

Prizm
comparison!

I
wanted a prism to make rainbows with and discovered three different
types. First was an acrylic equilateral prism (all three angles make
at 60 degrees). It worked very poorly because there were such deep
surface ripples on all the faces that the rainbow was distorted
beyond recognition. Next, I tried a glass equilateral prism. It
worked better because the faces were flatter but it still didn't
produce a strong spectrum or rainbow. Finally I tried an acrylic
prism with one 90-degree and two 45-degree angles. This was a winner!
In spite of some surface rippling, the spectrum was bright, clear,
and very long. So, the 90-degree prism is the best to purchase. (I
wonder how a glass one would work?)

NEW!!!
How
to take the sting out of bee stings!

I
recently got stung by a wasp for the first time in thirty years. I
had forgotten how badly such stings burned. I ran around the house
looking for something to ease the pain and the only thing I found was
a toothache numbing jell named Benzocain. I out a dab on the sting
and instantly the burning was gone. The only sensation with a very
slight itch that I had to concentrate on to notice at all. This
product worked so well I was suspicious that the pain had
coincidentally died of it own at the moment I applied the jell. So, I
wiped the jell off and within a minute the burning returned. A second
application, again, eliminated it. I experimented with it and found
that slightly dampening the sting with water before applying the jell
seemed to make it more effective.

NEW!!!
My grandson, Joshua, tests five brands of diapers!

On 15 May,
2002, my son and lovely daughter-in-law, Jessica, became the proud
parents of Joshua. Since I'm always looking for new products to test,
I talked Joshua's mother into testing five newborn diapers.
Here are the results:

Pampers:(The
Best by far!) Easy to use, no leaking, no dampness.

Huggies: Smell
of ammonia when wet, front of diapers become moist.

Luvs:
Not snug enough around thighs, leaks.

White
Cloud: Same problems as Luvs.

Dri Bottoms:
Back
not high enough, leaks.

The same
results held when Joshua moved up from newborn to number 1 sized diapers.

GE
Reveal bulbs versus regular soft white bulbs

I
found that a tomato viewed under a soft white bulb looked orange,
under the new GE Reveal bulb it looked solid red. In sunshine the
actual color was halfway in between. Blue denim looked slightly
darker and richer under Reveal lighting. A picture of flowers had
richer colors and more detail under Reveals. The real difference
comes in lighting people. Faces in Reveal lighting looks more natural
and attractive. In comparison, soft white lighting makes people
looked jaundiced. All in all I found them worth the slightly higher price.

Estes
"Dude" Inflatable Rocket

This rocket uses a D12-6 engine ($3.67 each) to launch a seven-foot
tall, five-inch diameter rocket whose body consists of a silver mylar
tube inflated by blowing into a straw. The rocket assembles very
easily, the instructions are clear, and in operation the rocket is
truly impressive. Although its maximum altitude is only 100 feet, the
rocket's huge size makes for an enjoyable experience.

Don't laugh at the laughably-small parachute that comes with the
rocket. Its job isn't to slow the rocket's decent but rather to make
sure that it lands on its side.

My one complaint is that the instructions tell you to assemble the
plastic pieces with "plastic cement." The problem is that
most plastic cements are formulated for polystyrene and therefore
have no effect at all on the polypropylene components of this rocket.
I went to a hobby store and asked their advice and was sold a tube of
high-end (at least by the price) super glue. That didn't work either.
The good news is that the plastic parts are so constructed that they
snap together with sufficient force that glue really isn't required.

Hikari
Micro-pelleted fish food

This product by world-famous Hikari Fish Products is advertised as
being semi-floating. It isn't. The only floating that takes place
results from surface tension. As soon as a fish disturbs the surface
of the water, these pellets drop like rocks. They are also advertised
as being good for middle-feeders, the implication being that they
fall slowly. Again, this is not the case. They fall from the top to
the bottom of a ten-gallon tank in two seconds... hardly sufficient
time for fish to eat most of the pellets.

Corian
Kitchen Counters

My wife and I recently had our kitchen completely rebuilt. Because
we were tired of the hassle of scrubbing the grout between tiles, we
elected to install Corian counters. These counters are made from an
extremely tough, temperature resistant plastic and are one of the
greatest things we've every come across. The counters clean easier
than tile or stone, the seams are absolutely invisible, the buff
finish hides any scratches, and best of all the cove edge (a smooth
curve instead of a sharp edge) between the counter and splash board
eliminates dirt build up in this hardest-to-clean area. I highly
recommend these counters to anyone... with one reservation: they are
horribly expensive. The counters for our kitchen cost $6,000 or about
$100 per square foot. Don't get me wrong, we love them and would do
it again but it seems to me that someone is getting awfully rich from
this product.

Furniture
Polish

I have an old cherry wood dining table that shows the wear of many
years of use. It's scratched, marred, and the finish is dull. I used
it to test several furniture waxes (pastes, liquids, and sprays) and
was surprised to discover that the spray Favor produced the best
shine... when used correctly. The trick is to spray a heavy coat, use
your hand to lightly rub it (this separates the water from the wax),
let the water droplets evaporate, then hand-rub the remaining white
wax into a glistening-wet shine. The effect is incredible. The table
looks shinier than when we first purchased it. Over the next two
weeks simply hand rub any streaks out. After a month, the wax will
need to be replaced with a new spray and hand rubbing but it's well
worth the effort.

Betta
Food Pellets

Bettas prefer live foods like worms and brine shrimp above
everything. But, while I was developing an automated feeder, I had to
switch my fish over to a floating pelleted food. Three types are
available: Betta Bites, Betta Bits, and Betta Bio-Gold. Betta Bites
didn't reliably float and the fish wouldn't eat them even when
starving. Betta Bits were grudgingly accepted but were too large for
small bettas. Betta Bio-Gold was the one most readily accepted by all
the fish and is small enough for small fish to manage.

Mead
Glossy Printer Paper

Like the HP glossy paper mentioned below, the ink tended to remain
soft and smudgy on this paper for a very long time.

Spray
Protectant for Glossy Printer Outputs

Even with the best paper and ink, glossy prints from color printers
are prone to fingerprinting, smudging, and water damage. An excellent
way to protect prints is to give them a light spray of Sureguard
pro-tecta-cote by McDonald. It's available in camera stores. I've
used it on many glossy prints from my HP 932c color printer and it
works great. The coating dries in five minutes and makes the print
almost waterproof. It even seems to make some colors, particulary
black, look deeper and richer.

Wilton
Bake-Even Cake Strips

When you bake a cake, the sides cook so quickly that they don't
completely raise. Wilton bake strips are lengths of 1-inch wide
folded cloth with a reflecting layer on the ouside. You soak them in
water then wrap them around a cake pan to keep the outer edge of the
cake batter cool enough long enough to allow it to raise. A cake
layer made without a strip usually mound or crowns 3/4-inch higher in
the middle than at the edge. With one of these strips, this
difference is reduced to 1/4-inch... not perfect, but a significant
and worth-while improvement.

Teflon
Rolling Pins

They sound like a good idea, but I noticed that bread and many pasty
doughs still stick to mine. The oddity is that the Teflon coating
doesn't hold flour as well as a wood rolling pin so that in some
instances the Teflon sticks more than the wood. Go figure!

Anti-dog-barking
Device

My
neighbor's huge Labrador Retriever has a bark that can be heard a
mile away. Needless to say, this has led to problems when the dog
decided to flex his barking muscles at two in the morning. I
conducted an Internet search for anti-dog-barking devices and found
that a Company named 1st and Foremost carried the most powerful
instrument. It's supposed to generate a 130 decibel (as loud as
standing next to a jet engine) ultrasonic blast guaranteed to send
any barking dog cowering and whimpering. I dislike causing pain to
any animal but I was desperate so I ordered one. The hand-held unit,
called Dog-Off, arrived in good condition with a battery tapped to
the outside of the packaging. I immediately attached the battery and
tested it on my cats. They perked their ears up, indicating that
something was happening, but otherwise gave no sign that they were in
discomfort. But then again, cats aren't dogs. As luck would have it,
I noticed dust being shaken out of my acoustic ceiling, indicating
that my neighbor's dog was at it again. (I've heard that they've had
complaints from the seismograph operators 60 miles away at Cal Tech.
The dog's barking keeps overloading the earthquake detectors.) I went
outside, leaned over the fence and looked into the gapping jaws of
death. The Reteiver was venting his fury at me with deadly
earnestness. I aimed my Dog-Off unit at his head, a mere 3 feet away
- the unit is advertised as being effect at distances of up to 50
feet - and pressed the trigger. The dog paused briefly, cocking his
head to one side in a moment of bemused curiosity, and then leaped at
me with renewed, and even more violent, barking. If anything, the
device seemed to enrage the beast even more. I pity anyone counting
on one of these units for protection. I tried the test again with a
fresh battery and got the same results.

To the company's credit. They offer the unit with a 30-day money
back guarantee, which I promptly used.

Stacking
Pie Pans

I
received a gift of a pair of stacking pie pans for blind baking pie
shells (baking without a filling). The bottom pan is a regular pan
with a smaller, perforated pan that stacks inside it. The purpose of
this inner pan is to hold the pie shell in place and prevent bubbling
while the pie shell bakes. It works great but the pie dough tends to
expand through the holes in the inner shell making it extremely
difficult to remove the inner pan without breaking the shell. I
don"t think I can recommend it.

Juicers

My wife got a juicer as a door prize. It worked very well but ended
up being a waste because it was difficult to clean and, worst of all,
it discarded the nutritious pulp. It's much healthier to eat a whole
carrot that only drinking its sap. We ended up giving it to the
Salvation Army.

A
Great Salad Spinner

The "OXO" company makes and excellent multi-purpose salad
spinner. Spinners are useful for getting rid of water on the surface
of greens that have just been wasted. Leaving this water on can
promote the growth of molds and bacteria that can cut the shelf life
of greens in half. This model creates a spinning action as a large
shaft is pressed downward... like the large spinning tops children
pump up to ridiculous speeds. This type of mechanism is much easier
to use than the conventional crank type spinners. The outer bowl is
transparent so it's easy to see when water stops coming off the
greens. This bowl also doubles as a great serving bowl for salads or
chips. The inner strainer that holds the greens is also an excellent
colander. You couldn't ask for a better product.

Mixers

I do the cooking in our family and over the last twenty years have
worn out half-a-dozen hand mixers. Usually what happens is that I'll
try mixing something too thick and the gears will strip out. That all
stopped when I bought a Braun, 220 watt hand mixer. This compact
mixer has been going strong for five years and shows no signs of
weakening. My only complain is that the manufacturer gave the wire
beaters a weird twist that supposed to make them mix better. That may
be try but they also cause them to throw batter out of the bowl.
Still, this is the best hand mixer I've ever found.

Post-its

I
compared post-its from a dollar store and Savon's brand against the
originals by 3M. The dollar store post-its had very weak stick-um
that gave way very quickly. Savon's glue was good but the thinner
paper used curled the top of the post-it so that it tended to pull
away from whatever I stuck it to. The 3M brand was the best: good
adhesive and no curling.

Aquarium
Bubblers

I needed a bubbler that produced the smallest bubbles. I tried
several cheap stones, they looked like colored sand stuck together in
the shape of a cylinder, and they all worked the same: big ugly
bubbles. Then a I bought what was billed as a premium, fine bubble
stone titled "Mist Air" by Kordon. The sand was finer but
the bubbles weren't any smaller. Next came a Rena Micro-bubbler
tube... still no significant difference. Worse still, it leaked huge
bubbles from a poor seal around one end. Then I tried a 2-inch long
diffuser that looked like a tube made out of fine foam plastic. The
tube was only about the diameter of a standard plastic air hose. It
didn't do any better than any of the earlier products. I tried an
un-named wood block diffuser and it showed promise so I stepped up to
the premium wooden air diffuser by Lee's. They drill a hole in a
piece of lime wood and let the air leak out of the pores in the wood.
This diffuser produced bubbles that were by far much smaller than
anything else I'd tried.

Sea
Monkees

I
got one of those kits with brine shrimp eggs to see how they work.
The box advertises that many of the eggs have been pretreated so that
some of the shrimp should come immediately, within two minutes, to
live. Although a carefully followed all the instructions, that didn't
happen for me. Twenty-four hours later I did see about twenty tiny
brine shrimp swimming around but that hardly qualifies as
"instant life" as advertised. Also, they all died within
two weeks, far short of the guaranteed life of two years. As check to
see if something was wrong with the water, I bought brine shrimp from
a pet store and put them in it. They swam around happily for over
three weeks. They would have lasted longer but I decided to feed them
to my tropical fish. All in all, the Sea Monkeys kit was a major
disappointment. I can't recommend it for children or adults.

CLR
Test

CLR
is a product advertised to remove calcium stains on tubs and glass
shower doors. I tried it and it didn't have any effect on our calcium
build up.

Glossy
Photo Print Paper For Inkjet Printers

I
bought a HP Desk Jet 932C photo quality color inkjet printer and
tried using the premium HP glossy paper they sent with it. The ink
never seemed to dry. Even after 24 hours, it smudged very easy. I got
some cheap Jet Pro glossy paper from Walmart and found that it worked
much better. Within a few minutes the ink was dry and could withstand
handling without damage.

As
good as Jet Pro was, prolonged contact with the moisture in fingers
can still smudge the ink. I found that most large photographic supply
stores carry sprays for protecting photographs. I tried one named
Sureguard and it worked great. It didn't dissolve the ink, made the
printed page almost waterproof, completely eliminated all smudging
problems, and somehow managed to even out some of the streaking all
inkjets exhibit. Sureguard comes in several textures from glossy to
matte. I prefer the one called Lustre; it's half way between glossy
and matte.

Stick
Blenders

These
are great tools for the kitchen but several that I bought fell apart
after only a month's use. The problem was always in the bearing, they
fell apart. Then I got a Braun and It's worked great for over a year.
Yet, I can't recommend it. The reason is that it came with a defect
(the two-power-level button only worked on high power) and more
importantly, the designed blew the design of the cup that goes around
the blades. They designed the side holes so that the blended liquid
comes fly out so fast it splashes out of the bowl and, usually, all
over me.

Non-Allergenic
Band Aids

My wife has very sensitive skin that turns red, like a heat rash,
from the adhesive used in most band aid strips. After tested many
brands and types of hypo-allergenic strips, the only one that didn't
cause her to break out was the Band Aid brand of non-allergenic strip.

Burp
Guns

The original Burp Gun was a hand-pumped gun that held fifteen
plastic balls and made a unique "burping" sound when fired,
hence the name. Recently, Nerf has released an updated version. While
the new model looks jazzier, it only hold six balls, doesn't shoot
them as far, and worst of all, doesn't make a pronounced
"burp" with each discharge. For my money I'll stick with
the original, which can be purchased from several sites on the
Internet. Just do a search under "burp guns."

Ping
Pong Balls

At the low end of ping pong players, where the bulk of us reside,
the equipment we're likely to use is poor. The question I asked
myself was: What are the differences in the low-end of the equipment
quality spectrum, specifically, for ping pong balls? The cheapest I
could find were in a 99-cent store. For one dollar I got two paddles
and a ball in a case that stated it was a "Deluxe" set,
made in China, and had no manufacturer's name on it. The ball had a
rough seam which, surprisingly, never caused any odd bounces in
several hundred volleys. The ball rebounded the least of the four
balls tested and always sounded like it was about to shatter. It also
has a very shiny, slippery surface... not good for English. Playing
with it wasn't very much fun. Next came a set consisting of two
paddles and three balls by the "Ping Pong" company, $10.00
at Sears. The seams were smooth and the surface matted for better
grip on the paddle, but they played flat, much like the first balls.
At least they didn't sound as if they were about to self-destruct.
Next up was "Sportcraft" brand balls, $4.00 for six from a
Rite Aid drug store. They had a smooth seam, good matt finish, and
bounced noticeably higher than the first two. These were beginning to
sound and play like a ping pong ball should... at least to a novice
player. Finally, I tried "Stiga" brand balls, $5.00 for six
balls from Big 5 Sporting Goods. I'd seen this name in a professional
rating of balls so I assumed they would be the best. The were, but
only by a small margin above the Sportcraft, at least to my level of
week-end pluncking skill. My recommendation? Probably any brand that
packages it's balls by themselves will be good enough for non-competitive
play between friends. For professional quality, do an Internet
search for ping pong balls and you'll find several sites which, after
a little browsing, should yield helpful comparison tests. For the
rest of us rank amateurs, avoid dollar stores and you should be all right.

Ping
Pong Paddles

The cheapest "Deluxe" paddles from the set mentioned above
were so light-weight that I could hardly notice I was holding
anything. They only had a thin layer of rubber with the pips, or
bumps, facing outward. They played okay but weren't comfortable to
hold. Rite Aid sold me a sandpaper-covered paddle by Sportcraft for
$5.00. It was pleasantly heavier than the "Deluxe" paddles
but balls rebounded from it in a cold, sharp way that felt jarring.
It wasn't enjoyable to play with. The two paddles that came in the
Sear kit looked exactly like the "Deluxe" paddles but where
heavier, more comfortable to hold, and played very pleasantly. They
had rubber only, no foam underlayment, with pips facing out. I think
they would do fine for the average non-competitive player. Finally, I
tried a Halex Tournament paddle with both foam underlayment and
rubber. It cost $7.00 at Big 5 Sporting goods. The quality of
construction of this paddle is clearly superior to the others.
However, the foam backing that allows for in increase in the amount
of ball area in contact with the paddle and therefore increased spin
and control, also robs the rebound of a lot on energy. To a hacked
like myself, it felt like I was playing with a wet rag wrapped around
my paddle. I believe that higher-end paddles like this will only be
valuable to advanced players who hit the ball hard enough so that
they loss of a little energy is a far trade for increased spin. My
recommendation: look around for the cheapest paddle that's
comfortable to hold and only has rubber facings.

Tennis
Strings

This information is almost certainly dated but I'm passing it on
just in case the tennis string I'm going to recommend is still available.

Until I blew out a rotator cup, I was a tennis addict. I had several
top rackets, hundreds of practice balls, my own ball machine, and a
court only 100 feet from my back door. I enjoyed nothing better than
spending eight hours on the court in a single day hitting against the
machine or anyone who happened along. It was nothing for me to
average thirty hours a week playing. I wasn't any good... but I loved
the game. Hitting so many balls got to be expensive because a racket
stringing only lasted a week. I got the idea that since I spent so
much time working against a ball machine that allowed me to make
accurate counts of how any strokes each stringing lasted, I could
measure which string was the most durable. While I can't remember the
names of all the strings I tested, I do recall that I tried all of
the top brands in different thicknesses. All, except one, lasted
3,000-4,000 strokes. One, Aramide Fiber by Toagosin (spelling?),
averaged over 9,000 strokes. If this string is still available and
you have a problem with strings breaking, I strongly recommend you
give it a try.

Iomega
Zip CD 650

This is the only CD burner I've used so I can't provide any
comparison information on it. However, I used it to made 25 music CDs
and it seems to work all right. One nice thing about it is that it is
the best CD player, for listening to music, that I've ever used. The
sound quality is noticeably clearer to the point where it's possible
to pick up new sounds that can't be heard in other CD players. There
are a couple of bad things about it. First, it has no "off"
switch. This is crazy because when you turn your computer off the CD
burner starts clicking. Worse, if it stays on all night, it acts up
the next day. Twice it got so scrambled I had to turn it off for
several hours before it would work again. Of course, this won't be a
problem if you plug it into a power strip that you turn off after
shutting down your computer. The second problem is that the unit's
pickup is so sensitive the dust or fine scratches will cause it to
skip songs you're trying to copy, cut them in half, or start in the
middle of a song instead of the beginning.

Scan
Pan Frypans

Consumer Reports raved about these expensive titanium oxide
coated pans so I got one. What a waste. they are supposed to be
non-stick but mine worked no better than stainless steel. At $40.00
for a small 8-inch pan, these are a real rip-off. A recent Consumer
Reports commented that they had gotten so many similar
complaints that they re-tested Scan Pans and wrote a retraction to
their first recommendation. They now rate this brand as poor. My
question is: why didn't they catch this the first time? After all,
that's what Consumer Reports is supposed to do best.

Electric
Razors

The best of the half-dozen electric razors I've used over the years
is a new one I just purchased from Walmart for $40. It's the
Remmington DA 307 rechargeable. It shaves fifty percent faster than
any other razor I've used and is more comfortable to hold. I get six
full shaves out of a single charge. Best of all is the sideburn
trimmer, which has been built to flip far out from the side of the
razor so that it's easy to see what you're trimming.

SMOKE
MACHINES

Like every kid my age who grew up watching "B" horror
movies where half the scenes involved billowing clouds of smoke, I
always wanted one of the machines that generate smoke. I finally
broke down and bought one to satisfy this life-long, and admittedly
silly, wish. It was great. And it was disappointing.

The machine I got was an American DJ Shadow II Portable Smoke
Machine ($130 from a party supply store). You plug it in, wait
fifteen minutes for it to heat up, and press a button. Wham! Instant
clouds of dense smoke. The only problem was that this unit works by
squirting a small amount of water-based, non-toxic smoke juice into a
heated element, which vaporizes the liquid turning it into smoke.
This process cools the hot element so quickly that the unit only
produces smoke for one minute before it cools so much an automatic
circuit turns if off. Wait another fifteen minutes and you can have
another 60 seconds of smoke. While it works, it's great. The smoke is
dense, non-toxic, has a not-unpleasant chemical tang to it, and is
cool to the touch. My complaint with this machine is that it needs
enough power to run continuously. The same company makes a larger
unit ($180) that puts out twice as much smoke but the literature says
nothing about how long it will do it so I'm not willing to invest in
one. My advice is to buy ten pounds of dry ice and drop it into a
ten-gallon bucket of hot water.

Parchement
Paper

This paper is used to keep cookies from sticking on cookie sheets.
While the two brands I've tried are essentially the same, I'm giving
thumbs up to the Reynold's brand. It comes in an eighteen-inch width
(the same as most cookie sheets) and it comes in a box with an
excellent cutter that always gives a straight edge. The other brand,
Cook's Club, is only twelve inches wide (very awkward... nothing in
my kitchen is that wide) and never tears right and always has to be
trimmed by hand.

Electronic
Big Ear Toys

These are those hand-held toys with a set of earphones that connect
to a pistol grip fitted with a microphone and a parabolic reflector.
The one I got from a Natural Wonders stores worked poorly. The
amplification was small and the noise introduced by the electronics
almost drowned out the signal. I took it apart and found out that the
parabolic reflector was all show, the microphone was mounted pointing
outward, away from the reflector. Even if it had been mounted facing
the reflector it wouldn't have worked because it wasn't located at
the focal point. By correcting these two problems, with the aid of
some wire, a coat hanger, and some of man's best friend (duct tape),
the unit worked fifty percent better (a louder signal relative to the
noise) but still wasn't very effective. Still, kids might have fun
with it imagining that it helps them hear better.

Foam
Mounting Tape

This is that sticky-on-two-sides foam tape that is so sticky that
it'll pull the plaster off your walls before it's adhesive gives up.
As sticky as it, not all are equal in their ability to hold on to
things. I found Scotch brand to be the least sticky. The strongest is
the Bulldog brand... used to be available in Thrifty and Rite Aid
Drug stores. Seven years ago I used a few square inches of Bulldog to
secure a six-pound telescope mirror to the base of a telescope. After
all these years the mirror's still solidly in place.

PLASTIC
CLING WRAP

We
tried four different plastic wraps on paper, glass, and metal bowls.
The only one that provided some clinging to all three surfaces was Reynolds
Plastic Wrap.
It's box also had the best cutting edge of the four. The remaining
three only clung to glass. The Saran Classic was the thickest
of the four wraps tried. The other two types tested were Saran
with Cling Plus
(the second best clinger) and Glad Cling Wrap, a
wrinkle-textured wrap that had the weakest holding power of all four varieties.

Armoral
vs Turtlewax Formula 2001 Vinyl
Protectors

I find that Armoral used on outside car vinyl surfaces washes off
after just one washing. The Turtlewax protector stays for two and
sometimes three washings.

Kleenex
vs Lint-Free Cloth for Cleaning Eyeglasses

All my life, every time I get a new pair of glasses, the suppliers
have admonished me to use lint-free cloth and never, ever use paper
tissues to clean them. They said the paper would scratch the glasses
whereas cloth wouldn't. I'd use cloth and a year later my glasses
would be too scratched to see through. So, I decided to compare the
two. Last time I got a new pair of glasses I purchased the same type
of towels that my eyeglass supplier uses. I kept them clean and only
used them for my glasses. Eight months later the glasses were
scratched enough to require replacement. With the new pair, I only
used a high-grade paper tissues to clean them. After six months of
using paper, then new glasses are essentially scratch-free. The
difference is incredible. The old pair look like I'd been cleaning
them with sandpaper in comparison. I'm going to give the paper two
more months so that both tests cover the same amount of time and then
go back to my supplier and see what they say about the test results.
I'll post their comments here.

Grain
Mills

I've tried three grain mills and have been disappointed with all of
them. The best was a Retsel with stone wheels but even it's flour had
to be sifted to remove larger grains to prevent bread made from it
from being too heavy. It took fifteen minutes of hard work the grind
enough flour for a loaf of bread. Even at its best, this mill
produced flour that made heavy, poor-quality loafs of bread. I talked
to the Retsel company and they said the flour this mill produces is
as fine as that produced by their electric versions. The Regal
Kitchen Pro is a noisy little thing that only makes a cup of coarse
flour at a time. The flour had to be sifted through a fine mesh and
anything that didn't go through had to be reground. This mill doesn't
really grind flour but shatters it by flinging the grains against a
metal collar... it's sort of like an air-type popcorn popper on
steroids. The last one I tried was called a grist mill. It was a
hand-cranked machine with metal grinding plates that produced a very
coarse, almost worthless as far as making bread is concerned, flour.

MSN
versus Earthlink's Internet Service

In February,
2000, I signed up with MSN to provide my Internet service. Two weeks
later I cancelled. The connection was free, thanks to a promotion
program, yet I feel it was overpriced. Here's why: (All these
comments are limited to the quality of service provided in February,
2000. Times change and service quality now may be better or worse
than it was then.)

1. Poor
connection success: Using Earthlink I fail to get a
first-time connection about once a week. Using MSN the rate, for the
same usage frequency and times of the day, is eleven.

2.
Disconnects too quickly: During a typical 20-minute session
on the Internet MSN will disconnect me four times. It is common to be
cut off within one minute after the initial connection. Once it
disconnected in the middle of sending an email with the result that
the message was lost. For the same time of day and activity Earthlink
won't disconnect me a single time.

3.
Nighttime connections difficult: Over half of all attempts to
connect at night fail. With Earthlink the failure rate is less than
five percent.

4.
Repeated queries to close connection: Six times, in two weeks
of use, I got a dialog box that pops up and asks if I want to stay
connected. I click on the "yes" button and within one
minute the same question flashes at me. Two times this cycle repeated
three times before it would leave me alone.

5.
Failure to close connection: Three times I was involuntarily
disconnected and thrown into a loop where it would repeatedly attempt
to dial onto the Internet, fail at the connection, tell me I was
about to be disconnected, and start dialing again. Neither the
"cancel" button nor the "close" box would stop
this cycle.

6.
"Could not display page" notice while page was displayed:
Seven times I would get a successful connection, the MSN homepage
would be displayed, and then the entire page would be blanked by a
message saying the page could not be displayed (when it obviously was
being displayed). Hitting "back" put me back on the page
that wasn't supposed to be able to be displayed.

7.
Erratic MSN dialog box: Approximately half of the time I
connect to the net a dialog box pops up in the lower right quarter of
the screen ordering me to click on its icon to pull up a menu for
various Internet services, services that are already available on the
left side of the screen. The only way to get rid of the box is to
click on it then click outside of the menu. This is annoying. The
fact that it doesn't happen every time I connect indicates an
inconsistency on the part of MSN's software.

8.
Erratic connection: Three times I successfully connected only
to have the dial-up function continue to redial as if I was disconnected.

9. Web
page wizard is poor: I can't get into the custom page
construction wizard. When I try it sends me into the simple wizard.
There is no way to switch from simple to custom modes. There is no
way to delete the page and start over.

10.
Repeatedly fails to display websites: With Earthlink I
typically fail to connect to a website twice a week. For the same
amount of use, at the same times of the day and for the same websites
MSN fails to connect twenty times.

11. Too
quickly times out the web page wizard: Four times I logged
onto the webpage wizard only to be timed out after less than one
minute had passed.